| Everything changed for Priyatama Nayak on August 26, 2008. One minute, her husband, Abhimanyu, was sleeping on their porch. The next, a mob kidnapped and killed him.
Priyatama was left to raise four children alone in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, then called Orissa. While Christians and Hindus had lived in relative peace for years, Hindu nationalists had begun killing and tormenting Christians the summer Abhimanyu was killed. Now, 14 years later, widows like Priyatama are still trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.
Barsha, Priyatamaâs youngest daughter, was only seven years old when her father was murdered.
"Though my mother gets upset with Jesus, she has no other option but to turn and pray to him," said the now 21-year-old in Surinder Kaurâs recent CT article.
Barshaâs words echo those of Simon Peter in John 6. In response to Jesus asking the 12 apostles if they wanted to leave him as many others had done, Simon Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life."
For the Christian widows and fatherless in India, those are costlyâeven deadlyâwords. And yet, they are the greatest hope one could ever have. The belief that Jesus is the only one with the words of eternal life has wreaked havoc in the earthly lives of these women and children. But it has also given them the precious, intimate right to "get upset with Jesus," trusting that he will not abandon them even as they grieve and lament.
And it has given them the strength and vision to trust that, while their weeping may last for a decades-long night, joy will come in the morning of eternity. |
